Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Cubby's Marketplace, a 12,000-square-foot grocery store in a metal building adjacent to the turnoff for Talkeetna Spur Road, opened quietly two weeks ago but many residents in the area are already singing its praises.

Mary and Bruce Gunderson, who live about a mile from the store, made Christmas dinner from Cubby's Marketplace food -- a fresh ham and all the trimmings. Mary Gunderson said she keeps finding excuses to send her husband over for things.

"I think we've spent about $300 just in the last week and a half," she said. "My husband says, 'Mary, you're looking for excuses to go shop there.' "

She admits that she is. Gunderson, who has lived in the area with her husband since 1976, said she's glad to be rid of the long drive to Wasilla for staples and wants store owners Greg and Lisa Pearson to make a go of it.

The store is the first full-service grocery north of Wasilla. It's being welcomed by residents who have had to pick from limited choices at the few convenience stores in the area or face the 50-plus-mile drive to Wasilla for mangoes and fresh cuts of meat.

But to others in the area, it's a sign of citified life -- which many deliberately moved north to get away from -- encroaching.

To some, like longtime Talkeetna resident and retired brown bear guide Rob Holt, the store puts the rural area too close to civilization.

"There is a faction of folks who are not really interested in this place being easier to live in," Holt said.

The beauty and lifestyle attract people, Holt said. Many -- he called them "sandalistas" -- are wooed in the summer but leave for warmer climes when the snow piles up. Some eke out a winter or two before moving on, he said. That's just fine with him.

"It's an end-of-the-road community and people like that about it," Holt said.

But with a nearby health clinic and now a grocery store, Holt said he and others worry the invasion will only worsen and soon residents will be driving through a Wasilla clone of poorly planned highway-side development when they make the turn toward Talkeetna.

Trapper Creek resident Lee Choate shares some of Holt's sentiments about losing the area's rural character.

He and his wife, basketmaker Jill Choate, started out in Wasilla 30-some years ago, when a single stop sign regulated the scant traffic. They now live about 15 miles out on Oilwell Road off Petersville Road, after a stint living in Talkeetna.

Choate said he doesn't want to see the Y -- the area where the Spur Road turns off the Parks Highway -- turned into box-store central, but "time doesn't stand still, either."

For years Choate and his wife, like other residents, relied on supplies at the nearby Mom and Pop-type stores -- Nagley's General Store in Talkeetna, Tanner's Trading Post in Trapper Creek and The Store in Willow -- to fill in the gaps between their less-than-quarterly trips to Costco in Anchorage.

More than a few times, though, he had to visit more than one shop to find what he needed -- even simple staples, like potatoes. He said he's glad to have a spot where he can cross everything off his list. It's a change for the community, he said, but a positive one.

"The way the population's increasing out here, I think it's a good thing," Choate said.

Pearson said the Gundersons and Choates are the clientele he envisioned when he wanted to open the Susitna Valley store. He hopes to sway folks like Holt by being a good neighbor, hiring local folks and working with other area businesses.

Pearson has worked most of his life in the grocery business, starting as a bagger at the original D and A Shoprite on Arctic Avenue in Palmer, and has worked at the Wasilla D and A store since 1985.

His wife and brother-in-law work there now and have been helping him out, along with his children, at the new store. They're putting in volunteer labor.

"If it wasn't for family and friends, this whole venture would be impossible," Pearson said.

The Dec. 17 store opening date was arbitrary, he said. People in the community kept pestering him about opening. After a big push to clean things up and make the place presentable, he just did.

"I just opened the door at 7 a.m. and said, 'Come on in.' It was pretty slow at first ... by 11, it was cooking pretty good," he said.

Pearson, whose motto -- and hold music on the store phone -- is "Don't worry, be happy," said he wasn't really ready to open. Bugs are still being worked out with the ventilation system and some freezers are temperamental. Most distressing, he said, is that the pricing system for goods spit out the wrong prices, so one bottle of bleach on the shelf might cost $1.99 and a store-brand bottle next to it might be more like $10.

"We're working on that right now," Pearson said.

Working on it means checking every price of the 12,000-or-so item inventory. But the store is finally open, after months of delays linked to weather and other issues.

The reception has been warm, he said. People stop to say they're pleased to see it's open. Produce and the fresh meats are popular and the store has sold out of fresh-made doughnuts every day so far.

New things are on the way, Pearson said. Knik Kountry Liquor plans to open a liquor store soon inside the grocery store and Pearson plans to talk with a bakery going in just down the Spur Road about supplying fresh bread.

Pearson said the family plans a more formal grand opening next year, perhaps in May after he can pave the parking lot. Until then, he's trying to ride herd on all the little problems that crop up, and keep the business afloat when it seems like more money is going out than coming in.

"This is one of the hardest things I've ever done," he said.

Find Daily News reporter Rindi White online at www.adn.com/contact/rwhite or call 352-6709.

ADVERTISEMENT